baby food, clothes, exchange of family
correspondence, etc. It is especially difficult to
ensure the rights of children who are in the zone
of hostilities, as well as in the temporarily
occupied territory, where Ukraine cannot
actually control Russian Federation's compliance
(Melnychuk, 2022).
According to the conclusions of public
organizations, in the first days of the war, the
evacuation process involved a number of
challenges. There was not enough transport and
it was not well adapted for delivering children to
the evacuation trains, in particular children with
disabilities and those who are raised in
institutional care facilities (SOS Children's
Villages in Ukraine, 2022). The work on safe
evacuation of children continues as hostilities on
the territory of Ukraine go on. The parties should
draw conclusions regarding the proper
organization of the safe evacuation of children
from the territories of hostilities.
Simultaneously with the de-occupation of the
territory of Ukraine, the state authorities need to
carry out work on the return of 6415 children, of
which 1953 are within the borders of Ukraine,
and 4462 are abroad. Special attention should be
paid to orphaned children and children deprived
of parental care (The Government Courier,
2022).
Large-scale hostilities caused mass displacement
of the civilian population, resulting in serious
consequences for the exercise of human rights,
including economic and social rights (United
Nations, 2022, p. 7). In these conditions, Ukraine
faced the task of normalizing the legal status of
internally displaced persons. According to the
Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, as of
August 31, 2022, as many as 4572600 internally
displaced persons were registered in Ukraine, of
which 3210300 left their place of residence after
February 24, 2022 (The Government Courier,
2022). Children who are included in the Unified
Information Database on Internally Displaced
Persons receive monthly assistance, but the
amount is small and cannot cover the expenses
they need. Therefore, in this difficult time, the
assistance from UNICEF gives significant
support for Ukrainian families.
It is necessary to further improve the mechanism
of providing social services to those children who
find themselves in difficult living conditions due
to social risks. In Ukraine, there is an extensive
network of institutions that carry out social work,
but in the conditions of the socio-economic crisis
caused by the war, not every community is able
to provide adequate social security. Therefore, it
is necessary to provide a subvention from the
State budget for the development of such key
social services as day care for children with
disabilities, supported accommodation, support
during inclusive education, inpatient care, etc.
The updating or development of new state
standards of social services, their development in
communities, could become the basis for
carrying out the reform of deinstitutionalization
in the sphere of protection of children's rights. As
an example, it is advisable to take the experience
of European countries in which it is not
customary to send children to institutions; rather,
adoption or family forms of alternative care
become a priority for placement of children who
have lost parental care.
In the conditions of a large-scale armed attack,
Ukrainian children were forcibly taken to the
territory of the Russian Federation. Therefore,
currently the state authorities of Ukraine are
taking measures to return the deported children
in cooperation with international organizations,
although this work is progressing with difficulty.
A number of state bodies deal with the search and
return of deported children, such as the Ministry
of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the Office of the
Prosecutor General, the National Police of
Ukraine, the Authorized Advisor to the President
of Ukraine on Children's Rights and Child
Rehabilitation, the Human Rights Commissioner
of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and other
entities. We believe that in the difficult
conditions of wartime, the International
Committee of the Red Cross should maximize
effort; indeed, the organization has the mandate
to search for children and return them to Ukraine.
As systematic gross violations of the rights of
children by Russian servicemen in Ukraine go
on, the Council conclusions on the European
Union (EU) Strategy on the Rights of the Child
(Council of the European Union, 2022) serve as
the guideline for all European states including
Ukraine. This is in line with Ukraine's strategic
agenda to join the (EU) and its newly obtained
status of a candidate for becoming an EU state.
In this document, the Council of the EU
recognized the need to strengthen the protection
of children's rights in crisis or emergency
situations, in particular during armed conflicts,
because in such conditions children are the least
protected category of the population. In order to
effectively protect the rights of children, the
Council of the EU recommends that the member
states should: 1. Develop a comprehensive and
adequate policy, as well as measures for its
implementation in order to ensure children's